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In all of Israeli history, only one man has been sentenced to death by a civilian court and then executed: Adolf Eichmann. On Wednesday, the country released the Nazi's handwritten plea for clemency, penned two days before he was hanged. The AFP reports the release coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and quotes, along with the BBC and Ynetnews, from the May 29, 1962, letter, in which Eichmann tries to make the case that he was merely following orders when he implemented the "Final Solution":

"[The judges] made a fundamental mistake in that they are not able to empathize with the time and situation in which I found myself during the war years.

There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders.

Had I been, as the judges assume, the fanatical driving force in the persecution of the Jews, this should have been reflected in a promotion and other rewards, but I was never granted any benefit.

I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out."

The Times of Israel reports that Eichmann—who fled a POW camp after the war, made his way to Argentina, and was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents in 1960—was cremated hours after his May 31 hanging; his ashes were spread in the Mediterranean Sea. Wednesday's release includes related documents, including President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's rejection of the request; the letter Eichmann’s wife, Vera, wrote to Ben-Zvi; and chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner's moving handwritten opening statement that referenced the "six million accusers" with him who "are now only ashes." (The dark details of France's WWII Vichy regime were exposed last month.)

The taking orders versus giving orders argument wasn't deemed legitimate in post-war Nuremberg, did he really think the Tel Aviv Beth din was going to suddenly have an epiphany, two days before possibly the last of the main (publically acknowledged) Holocaust architects/implementers/enablers known to be alive is put down, and call for a stay of execution? He might have had a shot if he had paid attention and realized his cronies were getting snatched up every time they tried "Nazi-ing" up a place and drawing attention to themselves. If he had noticed and prepared some legit looking documentation, papers, correspondence, etc that hinted at and gave clues to whereabouts of Nazi "Underground Railroad" destination spots for party members to flee from advancing Allied armies with orders to reconstitute Nazi agendas after the heat died down by infiltrating governments at their destination spots, sprinkle in some "Hitler got out of Berlin" subtext in the mix and the like, he might just have created the ONLY bargaining chip to keep the noose at bay until he died of non-capital punishment reasons or he couldn't keep up the hoax and was strung up on the spot. Regardless, at no point after his capture, was he not going to swing at the end of a rope by order of and under the jurisdiction of the Israeli justice system. Hell, even if Henry Fonda's portrayal of Juror #8 was sitting on the Eichmann jury, he wasn't getting a single person to change their verdict vote. Eichmann was already dead long before this letter was penned. I guess the myopia that makes that whole Nazi perversion of reality palatable and seem logical, also prevented him from seeing his fate had long been sealed...

RalphSpyer

Jan 27, 2016 6:10 PM CST

How many Russians were murdered in Ww2 27 million ? America drop two A bombs on Japan the Americans who built the bomb ,the Americans who order the bomb dropped , and the Americams who drop the bomb and not guilty of any ar crime crimes ? Black Americans had a Holocaust ? When. Jewish Americans put Iserial security over America ,when the U S gives Iserial more aid then any country on the face of the earth , we have a state with in a state

tpvero

Jan 27, 2016 4:58 PM CST

Oh yes...lets have our daily dose of the Holocaust story. It is just deflection to keep the sympathy up for Israel. They run this story, but not the story about the UN calling down Israel, claiming war crimes for bulldozing the houses of Palestinians convicted of a crime.